Blog Birthday and My First Giveaway!

I know that I just had an anniversary – a few days ago I celebrated one year of living in Israel. Well, less than a week later I started my blog with this short entry. I wasn’t entirely new to food blogging. Before I began writing about food professionally I had a pre-Julie and Julia makeshift blog with blurry photographs. I’ve come a long way. I like to think that I’ve come a long way even since starting my blog a year ago. I wanted to do something special to celebrate – and to thank all of the wonderful folks from all over the world who take time to come by and see what I’m up to. So I decided to host a giveaway!

Next I had to decide what to give away. This isn’t sponsored, this is just me wanting to give something to you. Which means that something super crazy awesome like a stand mixer or a culinary vacation in Italy are a little out of my budget. I wanted it to be something meaningful and relevant. Which is why I am giving away one copy of The New Book of Israeli Food: A Culinary Journeyby Janna Gur.

This isn’t new (it came out in 2007), but chances are you don’t have this cookbook, which is a shame. It is one of the best, most beautiful cookbooks on my shelf. My mother gave me a copy for my birthday in 2010, just a few short months before moving to Israel. Having never been to Israel, Janna Gur’s book became my guide to Israeli cuisine, and I read the whole thing from cover to cover, devouring the mouth-watering recipes and photographs by Eilon Paz, an incredibly talented Israeli photographer.

When I came to Israel, Janna was the first person in the Israeli food world that I met. I got the go-ahead to do an interview with her for the Jew and the Carrot (you can read the two part piece here and here) and she was beyond warm and welcoming. I met her at the Al Hashulchan offices, the pioneering culinary magazine of which she is founder and editor-in-chief, and we spoke for over an hour. She gave me great insight into the current status of Israeli cuisine, restaurant recommendations, and suggestions for topics to pitch and publications to pitch them to. Since then I have done a profile on her for the Jewish Chronicle, and have emailed her numerous times asking for a recipe to include in a piece, or her thoughts on an issue. She always responds promptly with friendly, helpful information.

Besides being meaningful to me, I am sure that you will enjoy The Book of New Israeli Cuisine no matter where in the world you are. The recipes are varied, approachable, and clear. They were contributed not only by Janna, but also by Israel’s top chefs from around the country. Standards like Israeli salad, mezze, falafel, and hummus are included, as are more modern dishes like Roasted Eggplant and Goat Cheese Mousse and Fennel and Pistachio Salad.

New Exciting News!!!Janna Gur has generously offered to provide me with one SIGNED copy of the Israeli version of her book (in English) for the giveaway!

How to Enter

{Main Entry Required} Just leave me a comment on this post and say hi!

Want extra entries?

Each item you do will get you ONE additional chance to win (for a total of THREE extra chances), if you ALREADY do any of these things, they DO count! Just make sure to comment for each item! You MUST leave each entry as a separate comment!
1. Follow @MartinelliEats on Twitter and tweet the following statement then come back to this post and tell us you tweeted.I just entered to win The Book of New Israeli Food from @MartinelliEats. Enter to win here:http://bit.ly/qiCyqi
2. Subscribe to KatherineMartinelli.com’semail updates through Feedburner. This is different than the RSS feed! Once you subscribe to the email updates, you will get an emailing confirming your subscription.
3. “Like” myFacebook page (but please don’t comment or write anything about the giveaway on FB we don’t want the FB police coming after me).

Important Details:

-This giveaway is open to anyone anywhere that Amazon or Book Depository delivers and will run until Friday, October 7th at 5pm EST. (That’s midnight here in Israel).
-Winner will be generated via a random number generator. Since my comments are not numbered I will count myself, excluding any replies from me.
-Winner will be notified via the contact email provided on the comment contact form.
-Winner will have until October 11, 2011 to claim their cookbook and provide me with a mailing address or I will choose another winner.
-Winner will receive The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey by Janna Gur as described above. Product will be shipped at my expense through Amazon or Book Depository.
–Although Janna Gur is now providing the book the opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. I will still be responsible for shipping to the winner.

I cannot believe it has been a year since you started this blog!(and moved to Israel! AH) I have watched it develop into something truly amazing since post 1 and Im so proud at how far you have taken it!!! Love you!

Happy Blog Birthday! This is one of my very favorite cookbooks (I already own it so you do not have to include me in your giveaway drawing). It is a treasure…beautiful to read and cook from, and every recipe I’ve made is terrific. How wonderful you’ve been able to spend time with Janna Gur, too. Her book is a perfect pick to celebrate your blog’s anniversary!

Happy blog day! I just found your blog from liking one of your recipes posted on another food website that shall remain nameless, and wondering, “is that the katherine that I knew of yore?” So glad to see how far you have travelled from PS3!

Happy first blogoversary, Katherine! I discovered your blog at around the same time as Beth Michelle’s and I adore both your sites and recipes. Great giveaway and it’s also wonderful of Janna Gur to provide a free copy to the winner!

What do you mean Katherine? You already gave away the all paid trip to Italy? Well, that is too bad. I was just getting ready to enroll. BTW this book looks great. I am going to enter and then when you’ll have the trip ready, I will take the book with me